


Andraste's Fire

by sqbr



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Challenge Response, Community: landofferelden, Crack, Fanfiction, Gen, Humour, Meta, Religion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-23
Updated: 2010-04-23
Packaged: 2017-10-09 02:49:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/82223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sqbr/pseuds/sqbr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>But what if the dragon really <em>is</em> Andraste?</p><p>Written for a <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/landofferelden">landofferelden</a> challenge to <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/landofferelden/6063.html">write short fiction about Andraste</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Andraste's Fire

It is an interesting fact that not one of the major religions of Thedas believes in reincarnation. The Chantry is particularly strict on the matter, there was a time when merely suggesting the possibility of reincarnation was enough to have one sentenced to death as a heretic.

It was thus a great surprise to Andraste, Bride of the Maker, to be reincarnated as a dragon.

It was not that she minded particularly. An eternity of bliss with your Holy Beloved sounds like a nice idea when you're young and dealing with all the mucky problems of mortal life, but it doesn't take more than a few centuries or so in the bland infinite emptiness of Paradise for the true meaning of _eternity_ to really sink in. And, truth be told, the Maker was kind of a jerk. He made a great show of Not Caring About What Those Stupid Mortals Think, but it only took a few popular heresies, or another country converting to the Qun, for him to pout and refuse to talk to anyone for decades at a time. Meanwhile she was left with noone to talk to but the few other mortals he'd decided were "sufficiently worthy" to be saved, a group of zealots that seemed to be getting more unbalanced as time went on. And, unlikely as it seemed, not only were their numbers being added to with less and less frequency, but she was increasingly sure that there were somehow _less_ of them than there used to be.

And now she knew why: they'd been being reincarnated. She wondered if any of the others had come back as dragons.

A high dragon wasn't too bad as mortal forms went. She could fly, and set fire to things, and while she couldn't speak she found that she could get across broad concepts to anyone whose faith in her was sufficiently strong. In a great stroke of luck (or perhaps Providence) she had been born near the village of Haven, whose inhabitants had dedicated their lives to her worship. She'd thought about reintroducing herself to the world at large, but it all seemed like too much effort, especially given how badly things ended last time. So for the moment she was happy eating the provided oxen and occasionally exploring the world from a nice safe height.

On the last day of her life (as a dragon at least) Andraste woke to the distinctive sound of Kolgrim's horn. She'd come to quite like the head cultist, he was a bit intense, but at least he worshipped _her_ rather than her husband. She flew down to meet him, and was surprised to see not Kolgrim, but a group of four armed figures she'd never seen before. She reached out her mind to greet them...and encountered silence. She looked closely and her heart sank as she realised why: readying their weapons to attack were a qunari, two dwarves, and a dog.

As she succumbed to their arrows and blades Andraste found herself at peace with the idea of another death. In her last thoughts she decided that if she came back as a human again she'd find herself a nice, non-demanding spouse, settle down, and avoid religion all together.


End file.
